"It's just so good for Australia and Queensland and in particular our region up here.

"If we can work this with Tourism Australia and Tourism Queensland we can all benefit - we're all benefactors."

He says he is already getting calls for bookings.

"I just spoke to a couple of agents in Sydney early this morning who bring a lot of our celebrities to Australia and they're saying, 'oh, so-and-so is definitely coming and so-and-so is definitely coming'," he said.

"It just diverts them - they might be going to New Zealand or Melbourne or Tasmania or somewhere, so we want them up here."